Town of Durham leaders appeared to be pretty pleased with themselves Sunday when they announced a non-conventional solution had been found in their weekend long stalemate with the Obama campaign. The stalemate had been over who would pay for the president’s appearance in the town on Monday.

Durham officials believed the stop was a campaign event, not an official visit from the president, and, as is custom for campaign trips, the campaign should reimburse the town for security costs, which they estimated to be about $20,000.

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The campaign sent a letter officially declining to pay the town and it led to news stories, beginning Friday night, about an emergency town meeting asking the president to maybe visit another town.

But Sunday afternoon, town officials claimed that someone came forward to anonymously donate the $20,000 in question and the problem was resolved. But is it really?While the president will appear in town there are now more questions which will mean this episode is far from over.

Question #1: How is this donation even legal?

A Durham resident interviewed by WMUR-TV Sunday made an astute observation:

But others felt the donor let the Obama campaign “off the hook”.

Durham resident Lawrence McClure told us he thought the donation appeared to be a political donation.

“It’s sure what it seems like,” he said, “Absolutely, absolutely.”

Both Durham and the Obama campaign publicly acknowledge this is a private campaign event. After all, the event was announced by the campaign, it is being put together by the campaign, and tickets were distributed through the campaign. Given that the event takes place 4.5 months ahead of the general election and given that New Hampshire is a swing state it should be no surprise that the president is campaigning here, just days after Mitt Romney did the same thing just a few miles away.

So it’s a campaign event and the campaign must pay for related expenses. They have to pay to rent the space for the event, for an improved sound system, and all the signs and bunting they want to make the stage look great. It is perfectly fine for local vendors to donate items or services for this event, but they must be recorded as in-kind contributions and they cannot be over $2,500.

Someone annoymously donating $20,000 obviously isn’t “recorded” and well above the federal campaign finance law maximum give of $2,500. Whether or not security is a campaign related expense can be debated. In their letter to town officials the Obama campaign doesn’t believe it is, but Durham officials clearly do and they claim the donor also believes they are paying for a legit campaign expense.

If so, this would appear be illegal. It is not illegal for the town of Durham to accept the money and there is no evidence the Obama campaign even knew about this, but it would be illegal for the person to give that amount of money.

Question #2: How can any donation by anonymous?

Governments are not like non-profit organizations that could protect an anonymous donation. Governments are bound by the Freedom of Information Act and other state laws requiring transparency. The conservative group Americans for Prosperity has already filed a Freedom of Information request with the town of Durham to disclose the donor. Unless the donation was made in a very creative way it will be interesting to see how well the town can protect anyone’s indentity.

Again the Obama campaign doesn’t believe it should have been on the hook for the money and there is no sign that they had anything to do with arranging for this solution to happen. Yet the way this resolved itself solves the short term problem, but creates headaches down the line for all involved.